“Feel like taking a trip out to Washington State? I hear it’s nice this time of the year.”
“Is someone out there going to end up shooting at me?”
“Probably.”
Chase seemed to consider that. After a moment, he shrugged. “When do we leave?”
Chapter 15
Tanner was numb all over when he woke up, and for a while, he lay there with his eyes closed. Shit. His head felt like it was full of cotton. What the hell?
It took him a minute to remember, but he slowly pieced everything together. Images of Lillie’s unconscious body and Ryan kicking him in the face flashed in his head. He opened his eyes and bolted upright, terrified by the thought of what might have happened after he’d passed out. Most importantly, what had happened to Zarina?
While his mind was alert, his body hadn’t quite caught up yet, and he nearly blacked out again. But he clawed and thrashed against the darkness, refusing to let it have him back. He had no idea how long he’d been unconscious, but he needed to figure out where he was and how to get out of there.
He looked around the pitch-black space, his eyes immediately shifting and allowing him to see as clearly as if someone had flipped a light switch. He was in a small, dank room with a single wooden door. Seven people lay curled up on the floor around him. They were so still that, at first, he thought they were all dead. But then he picked out seven individual heartbeats.
He sniffed the air for Zarina’s scent, and even though the dark space was filled with a bewildering array of everything from sawdust to alcohol, he was relieved he couldn’t pick up even a trace of her. Then he realized he couldn’t smell Lillie either. Maybe she’d gotten away?
But while Zarina and Lillie might not be in here, there were other scents he recognized. One was Spencer. The other two were Bryce and Josh. He was also picking up blood. Lots of it.
Eager to help whichever captive was bleeding, he started to get to his feet only to stop when he realized there was something around his wrist keeping him from moving more than about two feet in any direction. He couldn’t even stand up straight.
Frowning, he looked down and saw a heavy metal manacle around his right wrist attached to an equally stout chain running down to an eye bolt in the bare concrete floor. There was no way he was going to get loose from the thing, at least not easily.
Tanner glanced at the other captives and saw they were all wearing manacles like him. He called Spencer’s name softly, then Bryce’s, trying to rouse them. Spencer didn’t stir, but Bryce lifted his head and pushed himself into a sitting position. He blinked at Tanner in the darkness, his eyes glowing ever so slightly. Bruises covered one side of his jaw, and there was a cut above his eye. He’d been hit hard—recently.
“I’m awake,” he said quietly. “I thought you were still unconscious. I can’t believe they grabbed you and Spencer, too. I was kind of counting on you guys to figure out where we were and get us the hell out.”
Tanner grimaced. That had been the plan. At least the young hybrid seemed okay. “Help me wake Spencer up. We need to get our asses moving.”
It took him and Bryce a few minutes before they could wake Spencer. He sat up slowly, shaking his head as if trying to shake off the effect of the tranquilizer.
“What the hell hit me?” Spencer rasped. “I feel like my head has been used for batting practice, then recycled as the lining in a canary cage.”
Yeah, that was a good way to describe it.
“They darted you and Peter while you were patrolling the perimeter of the camp,” Tanner said. “They must have hit you with enough to put you guys under without giving you a chance to raise the alarm.”
Spencer growled and yanked on the chain that held him prisoner. “Did they get Peter, too?”
“No. At least I don’t think so,” Tanner said quickly. “I was able to hide him in the trees before they got him.”
All Tanner needed right now was for Spencer to completely lose it and rip his own hand off in an attempt to get free. He decided not to mention Lillie. If Spencer even got a hint she might be in trouble, there’d be no controlling him.
“Speaking of those assholes, any idea what they want with us?” Spencer asked. He’d given up on the manacle and chain. “It’s got to be more than just kidnapping and murder, or they would have killed us already. And there’s no way they’re holding us for ransom.”
“They’re using us for sport,” Bryce said, his lip curling. “And so far, the only people who have gotten out of here are the ones who’ve died.”
Tanner frowned. “What do you mean, using us for sport?”
“He means they put us in a cage like the octagons you see on those pay-per-view MMA events and make us fight.”
Josh sat up and slowly scooted around on his butt to face them. Tanner stared at him, stunned. The kid’s nose had been broken, and his lip was busted. From the way he was slurring his words, his jaw was probably broken, too. Dried blood stained the front of his shirt, and more covered the legs of his jeans.
“They put me and two other people in the cage against five guys from the audience,” Josh continued, staring into the darkness his regular human eyes couldn’t pierce. “They let them have baseball bats while we had to fight with our bare hands. It was brutal. The crowd kept shouting for more even after the first person went down so hard, he couldn’t get back up.” He swallowed hard. “They beat a woman to death right in front of me, and people cheered.”
Tanner didn’t know what he’d been expecting, but getting thrown into some kind
